City must live up to legal obligations

Express-News Editorial Board

Updated 11:17 pm, Saturday, August 18, 2012

Photo: BOB OWEN, San Antonio Express-News

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A Bexar Towing truck pulls a car on it's lot. John D. DeLoach, former owner now employee of Bexar Towing, was arrested Friday Aug. 3 for not lowering the company's towing charges to the city's mandated $85. Tuesday, Aug. 7, 2012. less

A Bexar Towing truck pulls a car on it's lot. John D. DeLoach, former owner now employee of Bexar Towing, was arrested Friday Aug. 3 for not lowering the company's towing charges to the city's mandated $85. ... more

Photo: BOB OWEN, San Antonio Express-News

City must live up to legal obligations

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The city of San Antonio has an ordinance on the books that caps fees for the private, nonconsent towing of vehicles at $85. City Council passed it in 2002, and no subsequent actions by the city or the state have altered the cap.

That includes a measure passed by the Legislature in 2009 that sets a statewide cap of $250, the base amount Bexar Towing — which is challenging the city's enforcement of the local ordinance — has been charging. State law permits municipalities to regulate towing fees so long as they do not exceed the maximum amount stipulated by the state.

State District Judge Martha Tanner acted properly in ruling last month, and then reaffirming last week, that there were no grounds for her to block the city's enforcement of the $85 towing cap. The ordinance is valid. Bexar Towing and other towing companies must abide by it.

That doesn't mean the city is blameless. The same state law that grants the city local authority to regulate towing also requires it to conduct studies to determine the fair market value for towing services if requested by towing companies. That appears to have happened on at least two occasions since 2002, most recently last summer. Yet those studies never resulted in changes to the local towing ordinance.

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Why City Council was never presented with updated draft ordinances to consider isn't clear. What is clear now is that the towing companies have once again requested that the city conduct a study to determine a fair market value for towing. City officials say a new towing fee study is under way and may be completed in the next two to three months.

This time, the city needs to follow through on its obligations under the state statute. In the meantime, the towing companies must comply with the ordinance in place.